1. Technical Field
This present invention relates generally to communication systems and more particularly to a system and associated method of operation for managing bandwidth available within a wireless communication system to apportion the bandwidth among various multimedia data transmission and voice transmission operations to achieve desired bandwidth performance for the operations.
2. Related Art
Both wired and wireless communication systems are well known. As such communication systems have developed, the systems have proceeded from supporting merely voice communications to supporting other types of information as well. Information commonly communicated in such communication systems now includes, besides voice communications, encoded audio data such as music, encoded video information, facsimile transmissions and formatted file data, among other types of information. Cumulatively, such information in various formats is referred to as multimedia information.
Various standards currently exist for wireless communication systems. The Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS) has facilitated wireless cellular communications within the United States for years. As technology has advanced other standards have also been developed and implemented throughout the world to provide wireless communications. The Narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone Service (NAMPS) standard, the Global Standard for Mobility (GSM) standard and the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) standard, for example, are currently employed to provide wireless communication.
Over the years, the demands placed upon wireless communication systems have increased as well. Such demands originally increased due to greater user traffic within the wireless communication systems. However, with the advent of multimedia communications, additional bandwidth is now required for the transfer of multimedia information. As compared to the requirements for analog voice transmissions, these requirements are great.
For example, analog wireless voice communication systems may require as little as eight kilohertz of bandwidth for analog voice transmissions, or less. However, multimedia communications typically require much greater bandwidth. The standard bandwidth required for digitized packet data transmission for Internet applications typically is, at a minimum, 14.4 kilobits per second (KBPS). Shortly, 33.3 KBPS of bandwidth will be required for standard Internet applications. Heretofore, such bandwidth was achievable only through the use of a wired connection in a wired communication system. Wired modems, operating between 14.4 to 33.3 KBPS, generally provided sufficient bandwidth for most Internet users. Alternatively, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) lines used in conjunction with ISDN modems provided relatively greater bandwidth for users. However, such bandwidths were only obtainable in a wired communication system.
In existing wireless systems operating according to the AMPS standard, multimedia data transmission may be provided via modems operating on voice channels. Such modems are commonly referred to as Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) modems. Such CDPD modems allow standard voice channels to transmit and receive digitized data. In this fashion, a wireless service subscriber could use a wireless link to transmit and receive multimedia data within the wireless system. However, the bandwidth provided by such CDPD modem typically was less than 9600 bits per second (BPS). Thus, such solution failed to provide enough bandwidth for typical multimedia applications.
Thus there exists a need in the art for a system and associated method of operation that will provide sufficient bandwidth in a wireless communication system for multimedia communications.